Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations at YU

By: Elizabeth Bentley

Posted: 11/25/09

International law will need to change in order to confront an emerging warfare of terrorists using civilians as human shields, said Israeli United Nations ambassador Gabriela Shalev at Yeshiva University on Tuesday, November 10.

"This is… the modern warfare, where sovereign countries have to fight terrorist groups that use their own people, the people they have to protect, as human shields," she said. Shalev, the first female Israeli ambassador to the UN, cited terrorist groups including Hamas, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Islamic-funded Chenyan terror groups as combatants in this new warfare.

"You cannot apply the old norms of international law and the laws of war to this situation," she declared. "We need to know how to change… in order to face these challenges."

However, Shalev did not specify what changes should be made to international law. "This is something for the future," she conceded.

Shalev emphasized Hamas's use of civilian-based warfare tactics during last summer's Cast Lead Operation in Gaza, which has gained renewed attention since the release of the Goldstone Report. "Hamas used mosques, kindergartens, hospitals, schools and homes to put their own weapons and people and headquarters inside," she said.

The Goldstone Report continues to be a concern for Israel as it gathers increased support in the United Nations. The previous Thursday's endorsement of the report, carried by the vote of 114 states, permits UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to refer it to the General Council.

Shalev accused the report's authors of knowingly ignoring Hamas' civilian-based warfare tactics when charging Israel of war crimes. "Justice Goldstone admitted that they deliberately selected incidents so as to avoid the dilemmas of confronting threats in civilian areas," Shalev stated.

According to Shalev, several countries that did not vote against the Goldstone Report in the General Assembly privately sympathize towards Israel. "Behind closed doors they admit that they see eye to eye with us," she said. "This isn't how they vote."

Shalev praised the United States for its support. "Together with us was very important countries, the first one to be mentioned is your country," she told the audience of 250 students and faculty members. "The United States… stood firm with us… by standing with us very clearly and very firmly and voting against the resolution."

The ambassador claimed that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be stalled as long as the Goldstone report is under consideration. "The adoption of the Goldstone report by the General Assembly is another blow to the peace process," said Shalev. "We are not going to sit as long as the report is on the table and we are accused of all these war crimes."

The consistency of the Human Rights Council's accusations against Israel prevents the nation from accepting the Goldstone report, said Shalev. "This council has adopted more resolutions against Israel than resolutions against all other countries put together," she iterated. "So how can we Israel believe that this is an objective and fair council?"

According to Shalev, the council refused to look into the Hamas rocket attacks that spurred Operation Cast Lead. "These eight years that we in Israel and especially the people in the Southern part of Israel suffered almost daily attacks of the Hamas and terrorists, mortar shells and rockets into these areas, the Human Rights Council rejected any investigation," she recalled. "At that time, our rights of life and dignity and self defense did not count in the eyes of the council."

Shalev questioned the integrity of most countries belonging to the Human Rights Commission. "The Human Rights Commission is known to be… dominated by non-democratic countries, many of whom are hostile to Israel and… and are not the greatest champions of human rights," said Shalev.

The ambassador stressed the morality of the Israeli army. "I know personally that our army has a moral code," she avowed. "And there is no soldier in the Israeli army who did all the terrible things that are attributed."

"The Goldstone Report… denies our human right of self-defense," Shalev asserted. "As a lawyer, as an Israeli, as a Zionist, as someone who is trying to read it analytically, I cannot see it as honest and fair fact-finding."